Evils Of The Media

Michael Hedges December 6, 2010 Follow on Twitter

Dictators and oligarchs aren’t alone in their loathing of the news media’s prying eyes. The public may have the right to know weather forecasts and recipes but reporting anything more critical, or even inconvenient, will be punished. Of course, we’ve seen this all before.

Andy Anson was understandably unhappy with FIFA and its president Sepp Blatter. Anson carried the English bid for the 2018 FIFA World Cup to Zürich only to see the Russian bid chosen. “When you have the best technical bid, fantastic inspection visits, the best economic report, and, from what people told us, the best presentation, it's quite hard to stomach that all that seemed to count for absolutely nothing,” he said at a post-announcement press conference (December 2).

England’s bid was a first round knockout, receiving but two votes. Prior to the voting, Sepp Blatter spoke to the FIFA board, according to Anson, about the “evils of the media.” For some board members the voting was punishment for unflattering news coverage of FIFA from the newspaper Sunday Times and the BBC television investigative program Panorama.

Evidence of corruption, in some parts of the world, is unflattering. The BBC’s Panorama described in great detail FIFA officials accepting cash bribes. When first details of the BBC investigation came to the attention of the England bid team pressure was applied to cancel the program, Anson calling the BBC “unpatriotic.” The Sunday Times, owned by Rupert Murdoch, began its investigation series in mid October with more details of bribe taking.

“Is it frustrating that Panorama's doing this program a few days before? Of course it is,” said British Prime Minister David Cameron. “But it's a free country and you have to roll with that.” It was broadcast as scheduled (November 29) three days before the FIFA voting. Public mention of the arguably more damning reporting in the Sunday Times would not have passed PM Cameron’s lips lest offense be taken by he-who-must-not-be-offended.

FIFA met these allegations of corruption – which included rather explicit video – suspending a couple of officials but mostly complaining about media coverage.

The finale – voting on the 2018 and 2022 World Cup venues – played out, with irony in full, at the end of a week that began with the latest Wikileaks data dump, little of which contained major revelations. Chinese government officials ordered Google hacked. Arab princes don’t like the Iranians. Corrupt politicians do corrupt things. Diplomats gossip.

“I think there was a big influence from the BBC and the Sunday Times,” said Japanese FIFI delegate to the BBC. “These reports possibly influenced people. It made damage for some people.”

But, like the FIFA corruption stories, Wikileaks data dump of diplomatic cables were sufficiently embarrassing. Suggestions that pressures were applied to drop Wikileaks from web hosting services are rife. On-line payment service PayPal also dropped Wikileaks, according to Reuters (December 4). Right-wing American politicians called for executions and compared Wikileaks founder Julian Assange to Osama bin Laden. Many of the embarrassingly released diplomatic cables were written during the term of Republican President George W. Bush. Decades ago when Daniel Ellsberg leaked the so-called Pentagon Papers to the New York Times the right-wingers called for his assassination, too.

Russia will host the 2018 FIFA World Cup with Qatar hosting the 2022 football matches in sublime air-conditioning. The main criteria, of course, is money. FIFA is not a philanthropic organization. After the cash requirement is met everything else is negotiable.

FIFA executives – like all rich and powerful – a quite thin-skinned when it comes to media criticism, made clear by Mr. Blatter. They will not suffer under a withering microscope from Russian media, nor Qatari. It’s a lesson learned by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), also not a philanthropic organization, in Beijing. Media control, local and foreign, is essential.

“When FIFA makes a decision, FIFA members think of the political conditions in the country.” said overjoyed Russian Prime Minister Vladmir Putin at the post-decision press conference in Zürich “We have a stable political situation.” Press freedom watcher Reporters sans Frontiers (RSF) ranked Russia 140th in its 2010 Press Freedom Index, a slight improvement over previous years. Qatar ranked 122nd and falling. China ranked 171st, near the bottom.

The IOC touted Beijing as venue for the 2008 Olympic Games to bring attention to the emerging Chinese superpower. Human rights were mentioned along with freedom of expression. When awarded the 2008 Olympic Games in 2001 Chinese officials promised the world’s media “complete freedom.” In the end the IOC agreed to censorship of foreign journalists’ web access.

It’s possible British media has learned its lesson and will cover the 2012 London Olympics appropriately. Countries contemplating bids for major international sporting events will be mindful that the sports oligarchs expect their media under control.

See also in ftm Knowledge

The Games People Watch

Media and sports are a powerful combination. Together they capture huge audiences and considerable money. This ftm Knowledge file looks at the competition from football rights battles and cycling coverage with new media to the Olympic Games. 60 pages PDF (September 2009)

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